Politics

Melinda Lowrance plans to run for her city council seat

Melinda Lowrance speaks at a rally on April 5 at the Historic Courthouse opposing policies of the Trump administration. [LIGHTNING FILE PHOTO]

By Bill Moss, Published: April 28, 2025

A crowd that was double the size of last year’s turned out for the Henderson County Democratic Party convention on Saturday to hear a speaker from the DNC, elect officers and conduct other business. But it was Melinda Lowrance who made news.

Appointed a year ago to fulfill an unexpired term on the Hendersonville City Council, Lowrance told fellow Democrats that she had not been intending to run for the seat next year. But a letter to the city complaining about her attendance at a rally opposing Trump administration policies on April 5 and criticizing her leadership role in the NAACP changed her mind.
“I stand here today to tell you that I am running,” she said to applause.

Lowrance recalled how she first became an activist when she was a student at the then-segregated Ninth Avenue School and saw the children of migrant families being taught in huts rather than in a classroom.
“I made a promise at age 12 that I would always be a voice for the voiceless,” she said.

In an interview Monday, Lowrance confirmed that she intends to file for election.

“I’ve had opportunity to talk to some of citizens and I’ve heard that I’m valuable even though there’s some who say I shouldn’t be involved because of my position with NAACP but that’s their problem," she said. "I really think my being on City Council has made a difference — that’s just my opinion.”

She is aware, too, that many people oppose DEI initiatives. City administrators, city attorney and the city council are still trying to sort out what President Trump's executive order outlawing DEI programs means for the city. Although the city formed a Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Committee in 2020 after the death of George Floyd, the board has not met since Nov. 12 and no future meeting is listed on the city's website.

"We haven't discussed it anymore but it’s much needed. They use that as a weapon," Lowrance said. "Diversity, equity and inclusion is not the boogeyman."

Duirng the Democratic convention on Saturday, Fletcher Mayor Preston Blakely, the county’s only African-American mayor, recounted two moments from his life when he felt that democracy became real in a vivid and tangible way. The first was in 2012 when as an 18-year-old voting for the first time he cast his ballot for Barack Obama.
“The second was in 2019 at age 25 when I stood in that voting booth and saw my own name on the ballot,” he said. “I realized what democracy really meant — that anyone from any walk of life has a right not just to participate but to lead.”

Blakely also praised the basic goodness of the people of Henderson County in the wake of Hurricane Helene.

“In Henderson County, we know resilience,” he said. “I’ve seen it firsthand in every volunteer knocking on doors and every neighbor working to rebuild after Helene. This is who we are. Recovery is going to be around $60 billion. That’s why it’s truly despicable that our congressman will not step up for things like an extension for FEMA reimbursement.”

During the business portion of the convention, delegates elected officers for the new term: Leslie Carey, chair; Linda Ford, first vice chair; Milly Baker, second vice chair; Dalton Buchanan, third vice chair; and Toryn Stewart, secretary.